Be Careful Who You Hire for Website Design and SEO Implementation

You have probably seen ads for companies that promise to get you to the top of the Google rankings and charge you a hefty fee for their work. Here’s the problem: many of those companies use tactics that will work against you in the long run. For example, many of them will use backlink schemes, designed to manipulate your rankings.  That includes buying and/or selling backlinks, linking your website to unrelated content or using automated programs to create links to your site. Those are just three methods many companies claim to use to get you to the top of Google, Yahoo, Bing or another search engine. These tactics go against the terms of service for the search engines and they will penalize you for using them.

Before you hire one of those companies making promises like those, you need to check for those tactics. You might (if you’re lucky) get a temporary boost in your ranking, but I guarantee it won’t last. The search engines can tell when you’re violating their policies. In the end, your website will likely get a lower ranking than if you worked within the guidelines to organically increase your rankings.

Here are some things to keep in mind when you’re setting up SEO for your website, whether by yourself or with the help of a company.

1. Getting to the top takes time. If you set up a brand new website or start optimizing yours for the first time, you will not be #1 on Google, Bing or Yahoo the day you hit “publish.” Search engines look at your content and history. It takes time for you to build the history and appropriate links that will help you get to the top.
2. Getting to the top isn’t easy. Anyone who says otherwise is likely using inappropriate tactics. First of all, if you’re in a competitive space, the big national brands have likely bought up keywords that help them rank higher. You can pay to compete, but it won’t be cheap. You do not need to buy any kind of AdWords or other keywords to improve ranking, but you might never become number one in your industry. Second, there’s that history thing again. The longer you’ve had a website with keywords, the better you’ll rank. Third, SEO is an ongoing process. Every new product, blog post, additional page on your site needs to be optimized in order to improve rankings.
3. Research is your friend. You need to know what terms people are using to find your products. They might not be the same keywords your business uses internally. Do your research. That includes setting up a Google Analytics account so you can see what words are bringing people to your website. You will need to continually tweak your site to help improve your search rankings. Besides, it’s always a good idea to know your customers and how they find you.
4. See what your website can do for you. Many websites can be connected to free SEO plugins to help get you on the right track. A good plugin will recommend ideas on how you can improve your SEO. You can also search for free articles from a variety of legitimate sources (including the search engines themselves) to ensure you’re doing the best SEO job possible.
5. Get background information on any company you hire. If you’re hiring a company, find out their techniques. If they are making promises that are too good to be true, go with your gut. Ask around to find out who other businesses use and ma sure you know what you’re getting yourself into before you hire anyone. Remember, improperly done SEO can hurt your business.
6. Be patient. Update, tweak, re-tweak. You’ll find what works and what your customers are searching for if you are willing to put in the time and effort. Don’t expect magic.